Prairie State Wire

A man from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, has been sentenced to over ten years in federal prison after pleading guilty to illegal firearm possession and violating supervised release conditions in Rockford, Illinois.

Steven Baxter, 40, received a sentence of 104 months for the firearms charge and an additional 22 months for violating his supervised release. U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston imposed the total sentence of 126 months earlier this week.

According to court documents, Baxter admitted that during a visit to Rockford in 2022, he entered a Wing Stop restaurant while carrying a handgun. He became upset about his order and threatened several employees by displaying the weapon at his hip before leaving the premises. Later, during a traffic stop on Interstate 90 in Kane County, Illinois, Baxter acknowledged possessing both a loaded firearm and another pistol in his vehicle. As a convicted felon, federal law prohibited him from owning firearms.

At the time of these incidents, Baxter was already under supervised release following imprisonment for an unrelated federal firearms conviction. The terms of his supervision barred him from committing new crimes or possessing weapons.

The case was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Christopher C. Amon, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives. The Rockford Police Department and Kane County Sheriff’s Department assisted with the investigation.

“It is highly concerning to the government that defendant has shown a pattern of not only illegal possession of firearms as a felon, but a pattern of brandishing and threatening people with firearms in moments of anger or rage,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodora A. Anderson argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Defendant’s history shows a disrespect for the law, for the safety of the community, and a disregard for court orders.”